Sun Mote Copse She paints me blue again

Backdated to a few days after this!

Avery hadn't been nearby when the earthquake had sent the boulder tumbling into the river, but she had heard and felt it. The rumbling and the shaking of the ground beneath her feet had sent her into hiding -- right between her father's forelegs. She was getting a little too big for that these days, and it was something she hadn't done for some time, but he didn't protest; the tremors as of late had been making him uneasy, and he was happy to comfort his daughter.

She wasn't brave enough to go to the creek later that day, or even the next day. But eventually, she went to go investigate, drawn by her love of rocks. This one was the largest she had seen, and while the flooding had gone down slightly, it was still wedged right in the center of the stream. All along the banks were smaller stones and bits of scree that had cascaded down the mountainside with the boulder. Avery stayed far from the edge of the water, but excitedly began to examine all the treasures that had been delivered right to her doorstep.

The earth still shook from time to time, becoming so commonplace that Sugar accepted it as just another part of the daily routine. She could tell the adults were concerned, though she supposed it was because they worried about more boulders shaking loose from the mountains and crashing into the copse. As far as she knew, it had only happened the once, and she was already well past the novelty of the event.

She was chewing on the stem of a honeysuckle, the plant as flavorful as it was fragrant, when she saw Avery leave the rendezvous site. She spat out the green remnants and trailed after her, following her sister to the riverside. Her lips twitched into a grin when she saw Avery scoping out the assortment of debris scattered in the grass. The sedge itself was still partially flattened from the flood and when Sugar moved closer to Avery, she could feel the damp soil beneath her tiny paws.

Sugar nudged her litter mate's shoulder, then glanced at the boulder still sitting midstream. "I wonder if we could climb it," she said quietly, "and then jump down into the water. She glanced at Avery again. Neither one could be described as "adventurous" or "daring," yet... "It could be fun."

Avery had familiarized herself with many of the accessories of the earth that could be found in the copse, but she knew nothing of mountains save for the glimpses of the peaks in the distance. To some wolves, the pebbles that littered her home now might have looked just like any other rock -- but she was noticing the tiniest differences in their shapes and textures that indicated that they had come from elsewhere. Her tail swung methodically behind her, evidence of her happiness, as she began to sort the stones into piles -- first by size, but she planned to go back and divide them up by other characteristics later.

She didn't realize that Sugar Glider had followed her until she felt the brush of her sister's muzzle against her shoulder. She would have been startled had it been anyone else, but she recognized her littermate's presence instantly and turned to greet her with a smile. She followed Sugar's gaze to the boulder, pursing her lips in thought at the proposition of climbing it. She had planned to stay away from it, but...as she tilted her head in consideration, she realized it might be fun. And, plus, it would be cool to clamber up the side of that giant rock.

"I'll d-do it if you do," Avery proposed, raising her brows in a playful challenge.

Sugar grinned when Avery agreed to give it a try with her. She bobbed her head, then began striding forward toward the water's edge. She paused there to navigate the depths with her shrewd black eyes, then stepped forward to dip her white toes into the stream. The water was colder than she'd expected and she clicked her tongue in her surprise.

Before she could venture another step, something caught her attention. There was a misshapen object floating just upstream, only a foot or so from the bank. Sugar retreated back onto the shore, then picked her way over toward it, and then thrust her pink nose in its direction. Her muzzle wrinkled at the obvious scent of damp and decay. She paused for a beat, then gave into a morbid fascination and stuck out her paw to nudge the thing closer to herself.

It bobbed and rolled in the water, bumping gently into the slope of shoreline. It took Sugar a moment to recognize it: "It's a dead squirrel."

No further words were needed; a glance was exchanged between the sisters, and then Sugar Glider moved toward the water. Avery hesitated only long enough to spare a glance at her piles of rocks, as though ensuring that nothing would happen to them in her absence, then she followed in her sibling's footsteps. She nearly ran into Sugar's rump, though, when the other girl suddenly paused and then backpedaled, her attention caught by something other than the boulder.

Avery watched as her sister padded a short distance upstream, quickly spotting the object that had piqued Sugar's interest. She couldn't tell what it was either, so she trailed along behind Sugar, squinting at the item. She could see that it was furry, but she still couldn't make out its identity due to its waterlogged fur; at least, until Sugar managed to fish it out and establish that it was the body of a squirrel.

"G-gross," was Avery's helpful comment, accompanied by an exaggerated wrinkling of her nose.

That word, combined with the expression on Avery's face, made Sugar Glider glance in her sister's direction and nibble at her lower lip. Yes, it was indeed gross, although it was fascinating in equal measure. She wanted to take a closer look, despite the state of the body and its horrible odor, though she sensed that her sister may not approve. And Avery's opinion mattered to Sugar.

She pulled the waterlogged carcass fully out of the water and set it on the bank. She wiped her paw in the grass, mostly because she knew Avery was watching her, then looked over at her sister again and explained, "I don't think it's good for it to be in the water. We drink from here." And though Sugar was no expert, she assumed that they didn't want something dead and rotten fouling up their source of drinking water.

Abandoning the dead squirrel, Sugar moved back toward Avery and redirected her attention to the boulder. "Alright," she said, "let's do this." This time, she stepped quite deliberately into the water, hissing quietly as it splashed against her underbelly, immediately chilling her. She let her small body sink until the water closed over her tiny shoulder blades, paddling toward the base of the gigantic rock.

Any secret fascination that Sugar had with the squirrel carcass was overlooked by Avery; she was too focused on the body itself. She liked squirrel meat, and had eaten it on many occasions, but something about it being submerged in the water made her want to gag. Sugar was able to verbalize the problem; she pointed out that it probably wasn't good for its bodily fluids to be seeping into the water that they drank from. "G-g-good thinking," she agreed, shaking her head even as she watched her sister displace the body on the riverbank.

With that issue eliminated, they returned to their original goal of climbing to the top of the boulder. Sugar was the first into the water, and the sound of her breath expelling against her teeth indicated its frigid temperature. That didn't stop Avery, though; she had committed to this plan, and she didn't want to show any hesitation. She stepped into the water just behind Sugar, and emitted a similar sound as its briskness shocked her system. She forged ahead, though, maneuvering around behind the boulder with her face upturned as she examined its rugged surface.

Carefully, she reared back on her hind legs and placed her forepaws on the side of the massive rock. "Ready?" she asked, managing to speak the word without stuttering.

The boulder had come to rest almost flush with the base of the mountain, so once the girls came closer, the water grew shallow. It sloshed around their ankles as they approached the great stone's rugged flank. Up close, it was even larger than Sugar had anticipated, not to mention quite a bit more interesting. It wasn't smooth at all; its surface bore the marks of decades of erosion by the elements, as well as its unceremonious tumble down the mountainside.

"This came all the way from the top of the mountain," Sugar thought aloud, looking over at Avery. Of course, she didn't know its particular elevation prior to crashing down into the copse, though she wasn't entirely off base with her supposition. "If we climb on top, we can say we stood on top of a mountain," she marveled.

But how on earth were they going to get up there? Sugar circled the base nearest to her, paws splashing noisily with every movement, but she could see no way to seek purchase to scale the boulder's curved, uneven facets, at least directly. Her attention shifted to the nearby rock wall, wondering if they could climb a ways and then jump down onto the big rock. It sounded like something @Crow and/or @Pox would do.

And that thought had Sugar shaking her head and seeking Avery's gaze. "I don't think this is a good idea."

Avery flexed her toes against the boulder's rough hewn surface as Sugar continued to examine it from all fours, commenting on its origin as she circled. The revelation that standing on top of it would be like standing on a mountain was a massive draw to Avery, and it gave her heart a secret little thrill; but after a few more moments of contemplation, Sugar seemed to conclude that it wasn't such a great plan after all.

She frowned and dropped her forepaws back into the water with a small splash. She was disappointed, but as she backed up a few paces and looked over the boulder with a critical eye, she realized that Sugar was probably right. It certainly wouldn't be easy to climb up, even if they assisted each other somehow, and although she had been excited by the prospect, she was still a little wary of its safety. What if the rock wasn't all that sturdy in the water, and they fell or got hurt? The logical Elwood inside her shushed her bold inner Finley, and she nodded her head.

"Yeah, p-probably not," she agreed, her brows still creased in thought.

Sugar didn't just sense Avery's disappointment, it was as if she felt it too. She frowned sympathetically at her sister, wishing she didn't have to be the voice of reason and spoil their sport. Not that Avery appeared to or would hold it against Sugar. They were too tightly-knit for such trivialities.

"We should play another game," Sugar proposed, hoping to turn that frown upside down all the same. "Maybe a word game or someth—hey, what about true or dare? Truth or dare," she corrected herself in the same breath.

Avery's disappointment was short-lived; she shrugged her shoulders, dismissing the idea altogether without any hurt feelings. Sugar's suggestion to do something else was met with a ready smile as she turned towards her sister. The concept of truth or dare was pretty self-explanatory, even though she had never played it before.

"Okay," she agreed as the water continued to lap around her ankles. "I want a d-d-dare," she said with a grin that indicated that her inner Finley was now trying to take control, despite the stutter that would have indicated otherwise.

It sort of took her by surprise when Avery opted for a dare. So much for word games! Still, she thrilled at the idea of coming up with a challenge for her sister. She nibbled thoughtfully at her lower lip as she swept the surrounding copse with her pitch color eyes, hoping for some sort of inspiration.

It literally walked into her line of sight, in the form of their brother, @Crow. "I dare you to go up to Crow and give him a big, wet smooch!" Sugar hisspered at Avery, dark eyes dancing. It was a lot less dangerous than trying to climb big, slippery rocks, yet provocative enough that hopefully her sister would find it sufficiently exigent.

Avery’s heart gave an unexpected flutter as she watched her sister consider what date to challenge her with. She briefly worried that it would be something too difficult, but banished the thought quickly. Her gaze shifted when she noticed Crow in her peripheral vision, and simultaneously Sugar noticed him and looped him into their game.

Th-that’s easy! she laughed, and took a few bounding leaps though the water toward the bank. She splashed haphazardly up onto dry land and hurled herself toward her brother, promptly planting a damp kiss on his cheek while wrapping her wet, muddy forelegs around him. Predictably, he tried to squirm away, and Avery held tight for a moment before letting him go.

She giggled and turned back to Sugar, even as Crow shouted about her gross-ness in the background.

Sugar cracked up a bit as Avery quite literally threw herself at their brother. His loud protests made her giggle further. She moved to join them, black eyes glowing with mirth as Crow made a sound of disgust and hastily skedaddled, probably making an escape before Sugar could lay one on him too.

"Good job," she praised her sister with a last few chortles. "I guess it's my turn now. I pick truth."

When Avery's dare was completed and it was Sugar's turn, she requested a truth. Avery pursed her lips thoughtfully, turning over her options in her head. In the end, the question she posed wasn't all that creative, but it was inspired by Crow's quickly disappearing figure in the distance.

"Who's more annoying -- Pox or Crow?" she asked with a chortle, knowing that her sister would appreciate the innocent offensiveness of the query. After all, their brothers were both gross and stinky, and certainly irritating.

*wraps this, ties a bow on it and puts it underneath the Christmas tree* :)

Avery took a few moments to ponder a good question, during which time Sugar found herself peering at the big boulder again. But the sound of her sister's voice eventually broke the companionable silence again and she turned to catch her eye, Sugar's own face scrunching into a lighthearted grimace at the question Avery had picked.

"Ugh," she said, chortling a little, "that's a hard one." She pursed her lips and hummed before eventually answering, "Crow's more annoying. But Pox is meaner." She cocked her head. "And the truth is," she continued in the next breath, "you're my favorite." She giggled louder this time, reaching out a paw to bat fondly at Avery's slim silver shoulder.

"Your turn," she prompted next, though before her sister could choose truth or dare, she queried, "You hungry? I am. Let's go get something to eat?" And, of course, because they were two peas in a pod, they strode in tandem toward one of the pack's stockpiles, their heads close together, giggling, as sisters do.